the anti-christian roots of nazism by dennis barton

8/9/2019 The Anti-Christian Roots of Nazism by Dennis Barton

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THE ANTI-CHRISTIAN ROOTS OF NAZISM

THE

ANTI-CHRISTIAN ROOTS

OF

NAZISM

BY

DENNIS BARTON

The ChurchinHistory

Information Centrewww.churchinhistory.org


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CONTENTS

Page Chapter

2. 1. SEVERAL ROOTS2. a. Introduction

2. b. Eugenics

3. c. The Volkischer and Pan-German Movements

4. d. The Occult

9. e. German Anti-Semitism

10. f. Russian Anti-Semitism

13. g. The Wagnerian Bayreuth Cult

14. h. The Thurle Society

17. 2. ADOLF HITLER20. 3. HITLER'S MEIN KAMPF

22. 4. SYMBOLISM

24. 5. BAVARIAN CATHOLICS

26. 6. SUPPORTERS OF EUGENICS

26. A. Introduction

26. B. America

29. C. Britain

32. D. Marxism

33. COMMENT AND CONCLUSION

34. REFERENCES

CHURCHinHISTORY endeavours to make information regarding the

involvement of the Church in history more easily available.

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CHAPTER 1

SEVERAL ROOTS

a. Introduction

For over half a century, Communists asserted that the Catholic Church was a

supporter of Hitler. This intense and slanderous propaganda was not without

some success. It established in many minds a vague feeling that Catholic

culture provided a fertile soil for Nazism and that the Church did little to

prevent its development. Some may even believe that the Church encouraged

Hitler's movement, and various anti-Catholic sects are trying to keep this myth

alive. In order to refute these accusations it is necessary to examine the roots of

this evil creed.

Nazism did not appear suddenly from the pen of Adolf Hitler. It was preceded by several philosophical, political and cultural movements, which had been

growing for many years. They were: eugenics, occultism, the Volkischer

Movement, Pan-Germanism, anti-Catholicism, German anti-Semitism, Russian

anti-Semitism, Wagnerian drama and the Thurle Society. Hitler emerged onto

the scene of history just as these forces had coalesced, and when a gifted leader

could transform them into a political programme. As they developed, they

influenced and entwined with one another, but for clarity they will be

considered here separately.

b. Eugenics

In 1798 Malthus, an English scientist, published An Essay on The Principles

of Population. He claimed that if the living standards of the poor were

improved, while famine, disease and wars were reduced, the population would

increase faster than food supplies, so causing a social and economic

catastrophe. Such thinking did much to discourage social reform in the 19th

century. Some years later, another Englishman, Charles Darwin, propounded

the theory of evolution based on the principle of natural selection.

In 1869 Francis Galton, an English psychologist who had rejected Christianity((DJK 12)), published Hereditary Genius, in which he claimed that

intelligence was inherited. His Enquiries into the Human Faculty of 1883,

transferred this theory to whole races. He wrote that the inferiority of the

Negroes made him Ashamed of my own species. ((RH 113)). Galton called

his new science Eugenics.

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By this he meant the science of improving the human stock by giving the more

suitable races or strains of blood a better chance of prevailing speedily over the

less suitable. ((DJK ix)). Towards the end of his life, he supported state action

to prevent the birth of degenerates ((DJK 91)). His own marriage was

childless due, he thought, to his venereal disease ((DJK 9-12)).

Yet another Englishman, Herbert Spencer, argued that nature used Survival of

the fittest as her way of perfecting humanity, and considered most racial

mixing to be bad for the human race. Darwin agreed that Survival of the

fittest was a better term than his own natural selection. From these theories a

school of thought called Social Darwinism developed.

During this same period, Joseph Gobineau published Essays on The Inequality

of The Human Races. He wrote of an aristocratic Aryan race, A branch of the

white race which had originally possessed the monopoly of beauty, intelligence

and strength. ((MDB 139)). According to Gobineau, these Aryans had beenmainly responsible for building civilisations. ((MDB 142-4)). The Negro and

the Yellow peoples had produced nothing. Even the Chinese civilisation had

been created by a small band of Aryans from India ((MDB 142-4)). The Aryan

inheritance in Europe was now in danger of being swamped by inferior non-

Aryans, which he identified as the less intelligent, irresponsible poor. Although

he tried to avoid provoking Christian society he doubted whether Adam was

more than the ancestor of the white race ((MDB 99)). He included the Jews

within the white race, but considered their general effect to be degenerate

((MDB 138)). He held 'the glorious noble race of Brahmins in great admiration

((MDB 139)). The caste system of the Brahmins, not the classless society of

Marx, was to him harmonious. ((MDB 122)). His views were generally

ignored in his own country of France, but Gobineau Associations were

formed In Germany.

c. The Volkischer and Pan-German Movements

Although German speakers ruled the Austrian Empire, demographic trends and

the occupation of Bosnia in 1873 led to fears amongst the German minority

((NGC 8)). When moves towards democracy were made, the privileged

position of their language and culture came under threat. Volkisch groups were

formed to promote German national consciousness by means of folk festivals,

choral singing, sports events and mountaineering clubs. As cultural activities

these had a positive influence. But stress on Germanic superiority, and the

introduction of volkischer rituals, led to governmental restrictions so as to

prevent racial clashes ((NGC 9)).

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The Liberal Party, which was anti-Catholic, advocated centralism and German

domination ((MH 167)), but the Church supported the rights of non-Germans to

equality. This brought Her into conflict, not only with the Liberals, but also

with many of the Volkisch groups. The Volkisch Movement became

increasingly anti-Catholic. The word Volkisch came to signify a sense of

nationalism and racial purity combined with a romantic notion of the collectivegenius of the common people ((DLN 46)).

The German speaking Catholic Party in Austria proposed decentralisation and

social reform, and in 1879 formed a coalition administration with the parties

representing the non-German minorities ((MH 167)). Equality was granted for

the use of non-German languages, but talk of universal male suffrage led to

riots, splits within the army and fear of civil war.

Some Volkisch leaders realised that the move towards democracy could not be

held back indefinitely, so advocated the breaking-up of the Empire with theGerman speaking areas forming a union (Anschluss) with Germany. George

Ritter von Schoenerer established the Pan-German Movement to achieve this.

To justify the claim for union on cultural, historical and racial criteria, he

stressed the spiritual union of all German people. Bismarck's attempt between

1871-1888 to subjugate the Catholic Church in Germany (The Kulturkampf),

deepened the antagonism between Pan-Germans and Catholics. Schoenerer saw

the religious divide as a major obstacle to his Pan-German vision, so launched

the Los Von Rom (Away From Rome) movement in 1898. This persuaded

30,000 Catholics, mainly in the ethnic border districts, to become Protestants

((NGC 12 and 40)). Being a political act, symbolising loyalty to the German

race and a rejection of the multl-racial policy of the Catholics ((NGC 40)),

these converts were of little use to the Protestant churches ((NGC 12)).

d. The Occult

During the 19th Century there was a rejection of Christianity throughout

Europe. Materialism became popular and was expressed politically by

Marxism. A small minority of ex-Christians, sensing a spiritual vacuum,

rejected materialism and saw industrial society as being ugly and threatening.

For these, occultism had an appeal. Many people understand the word occult

to signify Satanism, but it has a much wider meaning. It includes belief in the

pagan religions of the East, pre-Christian European religions and myths, and

sometimes merely a romantic love of nature. Today many would call it `New

Age`. When occult ideas manifest themselves in political and social projects

they were often referred to as illuminated ((JW 13 and 14)).

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During the 1800s an Interest in occult subjects had been awakened by occult

fictional writings ((NGC 19)). So when Madame Blavatsky, a Russian living it

Britain and America, founded the Theosophical Society in 1875, she found an

existing audience. At first the Society encouraged the revival of beliefs

connected with the ancient Egyptian god Isis ((NGC 18)), but Hindu and

Buddhist concepts later came to dominate. One of the Society's objects in 1878was, To promote the study of Aryan and other Eastern literatures, religions,

and sciences.' ((CCM 32)).

When Blavatsky and her assistant Col. Olcott went to India during 1877, she

made every effort to impress Hindus that their occult religion was superior to

Christianity. The Theosophical Society must be looked on as the earliest neo-

Hindu sect to carry on propaganda outside India. It played a very big part in

the Hindu revival ... ((RCZ 249)). Blavatsky combined Hindu and Buddhist

ideas with modern scientific speculations. ((RCZ 249)). When in 1891, Annie

Besant became President of the Society, she moved to India and helped to

found the Central Hindu College at Benares, to provide a modern English

education combined with Brahminism ((CCM 102)). Alarmed at Catholic

progress, she toured the south giving anti-Catholic lectures and distributing

leaflets. She was received at Madras like a goddess; the Prime Minister of the

Rajah of Mysore had prostrated himself before her as before the Incarnation of

the goddess Sarasvati, the goddess of science, wife of Brahma. ((CCM 102)).

At the same time, Col. Olcott was preaching against Catholic schools in Ceylon

(Now Sri-Lanka) and urging the building of Buddhist ones. By 1910 there were

445, including 206 directly controlled by the Theosophists. This compared with

436 Catholic and 891 Protestant schools ((CCM 102)).

Social Darwinism questioned the Judeo-Christian belief that all racial groups,

being descended from Adam, had a common ancestry and therefore a shared

humanity. According to Blavatsky, several races had evolved separately. Awise Lamurian race, possessing psychic powers, had established an advanced

civilisation. But, due to interbreeding with a less evolved race, the present

human race had been produced and the Lamurian powers and wisdom were

lost. She claimed to have learnt this from a remnant priesthood of mahatmas,

who were living secretly in Asia ((NGC 18-22)).

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It has since been shown that she often copied her teachings, published during

1877 in 'Isis Unveiled', verbatim from fifty standard occult works in the library

of Col. H.S.Olcott ((NCE Vol. 14 page 74)). They consisted of anti-Christian

and pagan legends ((JW 160)). She could not have spent long periods in Tibet,

prior to 1877, as she claimed. ((NCE Vol. 14 page 74)).

Theosophy stressed man's meaningful relationship with the cosmos, and its

ingredients included Gnosticism, the hermitic tradition, alchemy, magic and the

neo-platonic cabbala. Also included were karma, reincarnation, elitism, yoga,

hierarchy, racialism, electric forces and rays. It adhered to dualism which

taught that the world was evil, but man could attain gnosis (knowledge) of a

higher reality. It taught the Hindu belief that the world passes through cycles

within cycles throughout all eternity ((RCZ 223 and CCM 71)). So Theosophy

was a rejection of the basic Judeo-Christian belief; that the world had been

created good' by an intelligent personal God, who was separate from his

creation. It also denied that evil had entered the world when the first humans

rebelled against God's authority. Theosophy was a revival of the esoteric

(secret) wisdom of the East ((NGC 18-22)). Other occult groups flourished

during this time, such as the Rosacrucians, and often influenced one another.

Blavatsky's principal book The Secret Doctrine embodied the idea of the

occult destiny of each particular race, and her Society was originally called the

Theosophical Society of the Arya Samaj. The Arya Samaj was a Hindu

revivalist body, which interpreted Hindu scriptures in a most fantastic manner

and attacked Islam and Christianity ((RCZ 248-9)). A New York branch was

formed in 1883 and called The Aryan Theosophist of New York. The word

Aryan is Sanskrit for noble, and was used as a term to denote the ancient

Indo-European race ((JW 278-9)).

During these same years a wide network of Lebensreform (life reform)

groups, dedicated to a love of nature, had spread throughout Germany

((NGC 21-22)). Mainly composed of middle class people repelled by the

ugliness of urban living, they followed such interests as herbal and natural

medicine, vegetarianism, nudism and the founding of rural communities.

Theosophy provided many of these groups with a philosophical rationale, and

thereby spread rapidly in Germany ((NGC 22-3)). Between 1880 and 1910

there was an upsurge of occultism, with peaks of publishing between 1906-

1912 ((NGC 26-8)) and the mid-1920s ((JW 26)). Rudolf Steiner was the leader

of German Theosophy until he broke away to farm the occult Anthroposophical

Society in 1912 ((NCE Vol. 13 page 688 and J W 67)). In 1919 the Catholic

Church condemned the new society ((NCE Vol. 1 pages 615-6)).

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A branch of the Theosophical Society was founded in Vienna by Friedrich

Eckstein ((JW 43)), and this circle came to be greatly influenced by Richard

Wagner's book Religion and Art ((JW44)).

Theosophy tended to splinter, and many occultists became grouped around

Guido von List. At the age of 14 he had sworn to build a temple to the pagangod Wotan ((NGC 34)). He adopted Theosophy in 1913 ((NGC 71)) and from

it developed Arisophy ((NGC 30 and 136)). This was a belief in a quasi-monist,

pan-psychic energy which, being identical with god, animated the entire

universe, but found its most perfect manifestation in the blond haired, blue-

eyed Aryan. List also emphasised the importance of palmistry, astrology,

heraldry, and cabbalism. He loved nature and utterly condemned the entire

industrial-urban complex ((NGC 35 and 83)). He was the first popular writer to

combine Volkisch ideology with occultism and theosophy ((NGC 33 and 51)),

and saw eugenics as essential to Aryan superiority ((NGC 51)). The ideas of

List filtered into volkisch thought in both Germany and Austria ((JW 280)). He

loathed Catholicism and had strong sympathies with the 'Los von Rom'

movement ((NGC 37 and 68)) and officially left the Church ((NGC 40)). He

welcomed the war of 1914 as holy and the start of a new pagan age, when all

Catholic priests would be exterminated ((NGC 86-87)). He opposed democracy

((NGC 82)), prepared a plan for a new German Empire and called for the

ruthless subjugation of non-Aryans by race laws ((NGC 63)).

From 1925-9 List worked with Herbert Reichstein who specialised in

graphology, yoga, and dream interpretation. In 1932, Reichstein hailed Hitler as

an instrument of god who would establish occult culture and doctrine

((NGC 174-5)). In 1933 Reichstein produced the Aryan Review to struggle

against Judah, Rome and Freemasonry ((NGC 175)).

Other members of this group included the astrologer Wilhelm Wulff, who was

consulted by Himmler in the last weeks of the war ((NGC 165)), and

F.Wehrmann, an expert on Nordic history, runology, astrology, numerology,

karma and volk. He formed the Swastika Circle to save the heroic Aryans by

exterminating inferior races ((NGC 165)). List's most important follower,

however, was Lanz von Liebenfeld, who used Theosophy to develop

Theozoology. As a child he had been obsessed by legends, and in 1893, at the

age of 19, entered a Cistercian monastery ((NGC 91)). But he exhibited occult

beliefs and renounced his vows in 1899 ((NGC 92)). He then accused the

Cistercians of having abandoned Christianity by not being racist. He was the

author of three anti-clerical books ((NGC 92)) and joined the Pan-Germans

((NGC 13)).

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These writings of Guido von List and Lanz von Liebenfeld provided the

scientific basis for merging theosophical occultism with volkisch demands, so

forming volkischer racism. The theosophical belief in wise hereditary racial

elites, and its rejection of the Christian doctrine of racial equality, provided the

justification for refusing to grant equality to non-Germans in Austria.

Archaeology, according to List and Lanz, proved that a wise pagan occult

German civilisation had once existed with Wotan as its god. It had preserved its

vitality by practising a strict eugenic code of survival of the fittest ((NGC68)).

List claimed that the Catholic gospel of love and charity, compassion and racial

equality, had destroyed this German civilisation. It had undermined the strict

eugenics of the old Aryan sexual morality, while diocesan boundaries had

blurred the traditional ethnic Gaue in order to confuse the Germans

((NGC 68-9)). In this way the Germans had become subservient to Roman

Catholicism ((NGC 68-70)), and by interbreeding with inferior races, had

diluted their superior Aryan physical, mental and spiritual qualities. Both List

and Lanz had been greatly influenced by the teachings of Gobineau and

Blavatsky.

Between 1908-1914 Lanz used his publication Ostara to spread and develop

the teachings of Blavatsky and Annie Besant. These included belief in five root

races, Lemuria, Atlantis, The Third Eye, and pre-historical Assyrian monsters.

An examination of Lanz's writings has shown . . .a completely amazing

identity with those of the spiritual Theosophists. ((JW 282)).Men had not

evolved from apes, apes had evolved from men. ((JW 282)), so Ostara urged

the Aryans to exterminate the ape-men ((LP 28)). Blavatsky had recognised the

unfruitfulness of the mixing of races ((JW 282)).

List taught that intelligent Aryan god-men had interbred with soulless apes

((NGC 102)) and so produced the mixed races. He claimed that the Germans

had retained the highest proportion of Aryan blood ((NGC 94)). He demanded

the extermination of the lower classes of Germans by sterilization, and

fulminated against Christian compassion for the weak ((NGC 97)). For inferior

races he proposed deportation to Africa, enslavement or incineration as a

sacrifice to god ((NGC 97 and 122)). According to his astrological predictions

the Aryans were about to break free from being controlled by the inferior races

and classes ((NGC 102-4)). The coming Age of Aquarius, would see the

purification of Aryan blood which had been contaminated by its mixing with

that of ape-men ((JW 281)). List was in touch with Blavatsky and Besant and,

His racism is peculiarly important because it shows the transition between the

general possibilities implicit in Madame Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine and

their practical application ((JW 281)).

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Houston Stewart Chamberlain, an Englishman who became a naturalised

German, also combined eugenics with the thinking of the volkisch and occult

movements, and in 1899 published The Foundations of The Nineteenth

Century. It became extremely popular in Germany, with the Kaiser ordering it

to be read by all army officers. It held the German race to be the purest form of

the Aryan and saw the Jews and Negroes as degenerate. The book viewedAryans, in a semi-mystical way, as being responsible for all the great cultures

which had eventually declined due to intermixing with lower races. This book,

more than any other, prepared the German mind for Nazi ideology.

Mathilde von Kemnitz, believed in the occult conspiracy theory ((JW 305)),

and was also greatly influenced by Blavatsky's teachings ((JW 306)). She

declared Christianity to be a non-Aryan importation from the Orient((JW 306)).

She also attacked the conspiracy of the Jesuits and preached her own religion

of German God-Knowledge. Mathilde accompanied General Ludendorff

when he visited Hitler in prison ((JW 306-7)). During 1924 she spoke on

religion to the Nazi Party Congress, explaining that the communal life of the

Volk was an expression of the Holy ideas of the Cosmos ((JW 306)). After

marrying Ludendorff in 1926, she interested him in numerology and

freemasonic magic squares ((JW 306)).

Following their achievement of power, the Nazis suppressed most independent

thought, but prior to 1941 occult groups were not strictly controlled. In that

year Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess flew to Britain. The German public was told

that his defection was due to his interest in astrology and mysticism. Soon

afterwards, all non-Nazi occult writers were imprisoned ((JW 311)).

e. German Anti-Semitism

The Jewish minority was feared and envied throughout central Europe because

of its extensive ownership of industry. Employees condemned Jews as greedy

when wage demands were not met. Gentile businessmen claimed that by acting

secretly together, Jews destroyed their Gentile rivals. Patriots encouraging a

rebirth of their national cultures saw the Jews as supporters of materialistic

internationalism. Jews were accused of using their economic power to

manipulate the media by controlling advertising revenue. The middle classes

and religious congregations were outraged by the high profile of Jews in the

Communist revolutionary movement. Similar rivalries involving class, culture,

religion, language and business methods, had plagued Europe with Gentile-

Jewish antagonisms for generations. But the Christian and Jewish belief in the

basic unity and equality of the human race, had acted as a curb on emotions.

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Volkischer adherents and Pan-Germans, having absorbed non-Christian occult

beliefs, saw themselves as a racial Aryan elite. They therefore claimed a right

from nature to dominate inferior races which, in their eyes, had evolved from a

separate origin rather than from Adam.

They considered the Jew to be a form of sub-man, who had achieved economicpower through organizing cunning secret societies rather than through ability.

They feared that the Jews would gain control of the Slavonic races and use

them to enslave the Germans. In their eyes the Soviet Union, after 1918, was

controlled by Jewish Bolsheviks (Extreme Communists) preparing to crush

Germany. Prior to the late 1920s these groups had little real political power as,

The Anti-Semites had become fragmented into a multitude of tiny groups and

sects with esoteric or neopagan names . . . ((LP 28)). But for many Germans,

even outside the Volkisch and Pan-German movements, the need to oppose

what they saw as excessive Jewish economic, cultural and political power, was

a consideration in their thinking.

f. Russian Anti-Semitism

As early as 1877 Madam Blavatsky, writing under the name of Radda Bai,

gained a wide following in her native land ((JW 162)), although it was the

Anthroposophy form of occultism which had made the biggest headway there

((JW 164)). Blavatsky's greatest hatred was directed at the Jesuits. She never

tired of inveighing against that crafty, learned, conscienceless, terrible soul of

Jesuitism . . .the hidden enemy that would-be reformers must encounter and

overcome. ((JW 227)). She wrote of the Pope being a: poor weak instrument

in their hands ((JW 227)), and: they may appear as Protestants or Catholics,

democrats or aristocrats, infidels or brigands, according to the special mission

with which they are entrusted . . . Their spies are everywhere. ((JW 227)).

But in 1888 the Theosophical Society published an anti-Jewish book, The

Hebrew Talisman, and Blavatsky began to preach that there was also a Jewish

conspiracy to subvert the world ((JW 229-233)). One of her personal friends

and a fellow Theosophist, Yuliana Glinka, was on the payroll of the Russian

Secret Service in Paris. In 1895 she sent a memorandum to her superior entitled

The Secret of The Jews ((JW 233)). It called for vigilant action to thwart the

Jewish attempt to use the liberal intelligentsia, the capitalists and the socialists

to destroy the Christian world and Russia in particular ((JW 237)). It was

drawn from the vast mystical and occult production of the times. ((LP 104-5)).

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The Tzar was being urged by his Ministers to introduce social reforms and

some form of democracy. But those opposed to reform found a way to

influence him against these new ideas. The Royal couple were desperate to

have a son and were prepared to listen to all sorts of mystics and healers

((JW 170)). By introducing such people, who were able to gain the trust of the

Tzar and his wife, anti-democratic politicians were able to use them to warn theTzar against the dangers of democracy and political weakness. ((JW 171)).

From the turn of the Century the Russian intelligentsia and Court had been

greatly attracted by the occult ((JW 16-7)). Badmaev, who was a friend of

Blavatsky, specialised in herbal Oriental medicine. His friend Rasputin became

well known and was part of a broad spectrum of irrationalist opinion and his

opponents shared many of the assumptions of his supporters. Rasputin's

daughter married a Theosophist ((JW 171)). Occultists were sometimes

described as irrationalists because they rejected rationalism. The Orthodox

Church, not possessing the discipline of the Catholic Church, became infiltrated

by occult mysticism ((JW 172-3)). The Tzar was soon surrounded by occult

Jew haters ((JW 259-261)).

It was in this atmosphere that Glinka's superior, an opponent of social reform,

considered her memorandum. This memorandum appears to have been the

inspiration for the concoction of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. These

Protocols purported to be a captured Jewish plan to overthrow the Tzar and

establish a Jewish dictatorship. It was very cleverly written to show how every

proposal to modernise Russia and institute reforms was part of this conspiracy.

There is some uncertainty as to how the Protocol document entered Russia.

Some believe that Glinka herself took it there ((JW 217 and 239-241)).

Alturnative research points to a Madam K, known to have frequented French

occult circles, having passed it to her lover. This was Sergius Nilus, who

published the Protocols in Russia ((HB 367)). At one time he was training to be

an Orthodox priest but, when close to ordination, was suddenly refused and left

the monastery in disgrace ((HB368)).

In 1905 the Tzar ordered the Protocols to be distributed but, when a police

enquiry showed them to be forgeries, he ordered their withdrawal from

circulation ((LP 103-4)). By then, however, they had come to be widely

believed by both Christians and Occultists. The fear and suspicion of the Jews

thereby engendered, led to a fanatical anti-Semitism permeating all sections of

Russian life. There was an extraordinarily large number of Jews amongst those

who established the Anti-Christian Soviet dictatorship ((EJ Vol. 5 pages 794

and 797)), so for many this vindicated the reliability of the Protocols.

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The senior Orthodox military chaplain ordered his priests to discredit the

Protocols ((HB 369)), but army officers promoted them during the Civil War as

a means of motivating their troops to fight the Soviet forces ((HB 369)). So

with the victory of the Soviets, thousands of anti-Semitic anti-Communists fled

to the West.

Many leaders of occult thought were attracted to Munich because of the

opportunity to work on the newly founded nationalist and occultist publications

((JW 295)). The reason why Munich had become a magnet for right-wing

occultists is explained in Chapter 5. The arrival of these intellectual occult

refugees, including Grigori Bostunitsch and Alfred Rosenberg, had a great

impact. In Germany their effect was much the same as that of alcohol on

certain drugs: they potentiated an already powerful mixture. ((JW 267)). When

the Protocols were translated into German they gained wide circulation. Hitler's

thinking was permeated by the Protocols. ((HB xxiii)). Grigori Bostunitsch, a

leading Russian occultist ((JW 266-7)), . . . came straight from the ranks of the

illuminated Russian intellegentsia ((JW 166)). He had lectured to the armies of

General Denikin, and pervaded a very occult brand of anti-Semitism

((JW266)). Illuminates, who actually believed in the conspiracy, were

essential to the propagation of the myth. ((JW 266)).

On escaping from Russia, he spent time in Bulgarian Theosophical circles,

((JW 267)) before moving to Vienna and Munich where he joined the

Anthroposophists ((JW 267)). Later he turned against them ((JW 267)) and

became a follower of List while working for Rosenberg's news agency

((NGC170)). Subsequently he joined the SS, where he was known as Schwartz-

Bostunitch ((JW 266)), being appointed an honorary professor in 1942 and an

SS colonel ((NGC 170)). Another Theosophist who became a Nazi intellectual

was Artur Dinter ((MK 187 and 377)).

Alfred Rosenberg (1893-1946) brought together in one book the multiple

strands of nationalist and occult thought. He had been born an Estonian so,

despite his Germanic name, was a citizen of the Russian Empire. Whilst at

High School he joined an anti-Semitic organisation ((JW 293-4)) and

commenced reading the works of Houston Stewart Chamberlain. He also

became preoccupied with the teachings of Schopenhauer and Indian philosophy

((JW 296)). Moving to Moscow he was captivated by the Protocols ((JW 296)).

On arriving in Munich in December 1918, he made close friends of Dietrich

Eckart and Gottfried Feder. After joining the Thurle Society, he became a

member of the Nazi party. Hitler appointed Rosenberg as party leader while he

himself was in prison.

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The Myth of the Twentieth Century, which he had started to write while in

Russia, was published in 1930. It was the most important Nazi text next to

Mein Kampf, and sold half a million copies by 1940 ((WLS 149)).

By Myth he meant The guiding spirit of the age ((JW 314)). It was the

history of the Aryans as seen through occult eyes. He taught Blavatsky'sdoctrine of the Aryans coming from the third root race on Atlantis ((JW 315)).

He considered all the opponents of the Catholic Church during Her 1900 year

existence to have been heroes of Nordic philosophy ((JW 316)). For

Rosenberg materialism and individualism were about to be submerged in the

all-embracing Volk ((JW 314)). In January 1934, Hitler appointed him official

philosopher of the Nazi party ((JW 314)). He was sentenced to death by the

Nuremberg war crimes tribunal in 1946.

g. The Wagnerian Bayreuth Cult

Richard Wagner's compositions of epic German musical dramas, such as Der

Ring des Nibelungen and Parsifal, were more than pieces of music to

entertain. They appealed to the soul by depicting the themes of heroism,

despair, hope, tragedy, treachery, love and destruction. This was achieved by

music, drama, poetry and art.

When twelve years of age, at the moment of receiving the Eucharist during his

Lutheran ceremony of Confirmation, Wagner rejected Christianity((JC 18-19)).

After the death of his wife in 1866, he lived with Cosima Bulow. But when she

produced a third child by him, her husband divorced her ((JC 229)). Cosimahad been one of three illegitimate children brought up by several people, while

her father lived with another woman. So, although baptised a Catholic, she had

no example of Catholic family life. She had a Protestant marriage service with

Wagner, and officially left the Catholic Church the following year ((JC 239)).

They became great admirers of Gobineau's racial theories and spent much time

with him ((JC 249 and 268)). In 1908 Houston Stewart Chamberlain, who held

similar beliefs, became their son-in-law and moved close to them ((JC 280)).

He later joined the Nazi party ((BM 119)).

The views of Gobineau and Chamberlain blended well with the fervent Germannationalism of the Wagners. Two other personal friends, who greatly

influenced the religious thinking of Wagner, were Nietzsche and Schopenhauer.

Nietzche was strongly anti-Christian ((BM 97)), while Schopenhauer believed

in the Buddhist concepts of the transmigration of souls, reincarnation and

Nirvana ((BM 56 and 226)).

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Wagner blended these ideas, with his own mystic belief in the German Volk

and Reich ((JC 219)), into a new religion of his own ((BM 257)). He aimed to

see the German race rejuvenated through drama and music, and believed the

human race had degenerated through eating meat and absorbing animal blood

((BM 104)). He saw vegetarianism as the way to regeneration. He rejected

existing churches because they were not vegetarian, and the Christian God,because he was of Jewish origin. He wanted a religion based on the faith, hope

and love produced by fellow-suffering ((BM 270)). His hatred of the Jews was

intense, likening them to a swarm of flies in the wound of a horse ((BM 269)),

and wrote that their annihilation was both desirable and necessary ((BM 265)).

He considered Negroes as inferior to the white races ((BM 269)).

Wagner hated the Jesuits ((BM 82)) and detested Munich because he decided it

was overrun by the Jesuits and the Jews ((JC 215)). He supported Bismarck's

persecution of the Catholic Church in Prussia.

His powerful operas and musical dramas drew their inspiration from the sagas

and epic poems of pagan Norse and German history, such as the Edda. Wagner

preached a religious message combining pagan, Buddhist and Schopenhauen

racial regeneration. Although his Parsifal opera was full of Christian

symbolism, it was in essence a Buddhist message of redemption as a painful

process of self-enlightenment, with the hope of eventual freedom from pain and

sorrow in Nirvana ((BM 266)). Only a sense of duty and honour called a man to

remain alive and thereby suffer ((BM 265-7)). Wagner desired pagan freedom

from Christianity ((BM 193-4)). Wahnfeld House and a special theatre were

constructed in the medieval atmosphere of Bayreuth, Franconia.

It was in the heart of Germany ((GRM 140-2)). The house and theatre were

dedicated to Wagnerian festivals and Germany. This Bayreuth circle saw

themselves as a great Grail Brotherhood, and Wahnfeld as the spiritual centre

and shrine of a new religion ((BM 270)). After Wagner's death in 1883, Cosima

and her son Siegfried continued the festivals.

They died in 1930 and the estate went to Siegfried's English wife, Winifred.

She had been an early admirer of Hitler, entertaining him just prior to his

unsuccessful Munich putsch of 1923 ((JC 283)), and sending him presents

while he was in prison. Mein Kampf was probably written on paper she

provided ((JC 283)). Hitler was a life-long devotee of Wagnerian dramas with

their depiction of heroic Germans sometimes going down to cataclysmic defeat.

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h. The Thurle Society

Following the 1914-18 war, the Austrian Empire was broken up by the Allies.

The main German speaking area became the separate state of Austria, and the

German Sudetenland was incorporated into the newly-formed Czecho-

Slovakia. The Allies had forbidden the union of Austria and Germany, althoughthis was now demanded by all Austrian political parties. Schoenerer Pan-

Germanism remained small but its 20,000 members, including many school-

teachers, exerted a strong Influence on Austrian thinking. Volkisch ideas also

continued to command wide support in Germany.

So by the 1920s large sections of German opinion had been influenced, to

varying degrees, by Volkisch, Pan-German, anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, eugenic

and occult ideas. By then, a wide variety of clubs, associations and publications

existed with each emphasising different aspects and combinations of these

interests. In many respects the ideas complemented one another and it wascommon for individuals to follow more than one train of thought.

During 1911 and 1912, a masonic type Germanenorder, was founded by List

Society members and others ((NGC 45, 126-7 and LP 28)). Under the control

of the Wotan Lodge, its ritual was based on German pagan traditions and it

aimed to usher in an Aryan Germanic religious revival ((NGC 127-128)). It was

anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic. Membership was restricted to those racially

pure (with blond hair, blue eyes and a pale skin.

In 1916 Rudolf von Sebottendorff a great admirer of List and Lanz, establisheda lodge in Bavaria ((NGC 123)). For political reasons, it operated under the

name of the Thurle Society ((NGC 144)), and was not officially established till

August 1918 ((JW 297)). While not a mass organisation, it became influential

due to the leadership qualities of its membership. It consisted mainly of

lawyers, judges, university professors, aristocrats, industrialists, doctors,

scientists and rich businessmen ((NGC 149)). It was to be covertly linked to

the beginnings of the Nazi party ((LP 28)). Sebottendorff's main interests were

astrology combined with the theories of List and Lanz. These led him to the

conclusion that the German mission was to give the world a new species for the

new astrological eon. ((JW 297)).

In October 1918, Sebottcndorff entrusted Karl Harrer with the task of gaining

influence amongst the working class ((NGC 150)). Harrer formed a Worker's

Ring with Adolf Drexler, a Union organiser. From this small Ring the

Deutschen Arbeiterpartie (German Workers' Party) was founded in January

1919, to be known as DAP.

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There was a profusion of small parties at the time, but the party's background

enabled it to invite prominent Thurle speakers such as Dietrich Eckart,

Gottfried Feder and Friedrich Krone, to assist in its growth ((DO 13, NGC 149

and JW 298)).

In November 1918, the Socialists with the support of the Communist ledPeasant's League (BMBB), took power in Bavaria. But five months later

Anarchists, then Communists, seized power in Munich and proclaimed Soviet

Republics ((GP 70 and HSW 58)). Thurle smuggled its sympathisers out of

Munich to join forces opposed to the revolution, while at the same time

organising an uprising within the city itself ((NGC 147-9)). Thurle and other

Volkisch armed militias regained Munich in May 1919 and helped to restore

order ((WS 33)).

In September of the same year, Hitler was sent by the army to spy on the DAP

((NGC 150 and DO 14)). It had few adherents and, following his dischargefrom the army, Hitler became its 54th member and the 7th man on its

committee ((AH 204)). Opposing all outside control of the party, he ousted

Harrar ((AH 332)) the key Thurle leader, and soon became leader himself. The

following year the party's name was changed to National Socialist German

Workers Party (NSDAP), which became known as Nazi party.

Gustav von Kahr had become the virtual dictator of Bavaria. With the support

of the local army and police, he refused to arrest the leaders of armed

nationalist bands or to ban the Volkischer Beobachter ((WLS 65-66)). Kahr,

was an extreme right-wing Monarchist plotting a revolution, but was hesitant. It

was his indecisiveness, which prompted Hitler and Ludendorff to organise their

Putsch of November 1923. The Church opposed Kahr's anti-Communist and

ultra-conservative virtual dictatorship. Catholics were the first to attack the

demented von Kahr, whose behaviour foreshadowed that of Hitler. ((NP 49)).

But, when Hitler and his associates attempted to seize power, Cardinal

Faulhaber urged Kahr to crush them ((PDS 235)). Although, eventually, a more

moderate government was installed, the militias, collectively known as

Freekorp, retained great influence ((NGC 149)).

In 1918, Thurle had purchased the Munich Beobachter and Sportsblatt, and

used it as the mouthpiece of the German Socialist Party. This very small party

was organised by Thurle member H.G.Grassinger ((NGC 147)). Julius

Streicher, the notorious hater of Catholics and Jews, promoted and led its

activities in the Franconian area of Bavaria ((GP 9)). In December 1920 this

paper became, under the shortened title Volkischer Beobachter, the official

organ of the Nazi Party, which it remained till 1945 ((NGC 147)).

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Stretcher also co-operated with Rudolf Gorsleben, a follower of List and a

Thurle member, to produce Der Sturmer ((NGC 156)). This was the most

obscene anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish paper In Germany. Gorsleben also had

his own occult newspaper advocating a racially pure humanity ((NGC 156)).

Gorsleben founded, with the assistance of Ludendorff's wife ((NGC 159)), and

in the spirit of Wagner, the Edda Society to promote theosophy and the oldAryan religion ((NGC 156)). The Edda, an ancient book of Nordic poems,

was treated as a Nordic Bible ((JW 327)). In the Edda Society, Wotan was

worshipped as the war god and lord of dead heroes in Valhalla ((NGC 49)).

This Society later declared its adherence to the Nazi Party ((NGC 160)).

Thurle member Rudolf Hess believed in Anthroposophy and had a tendency to

mysticism. He became Hitler's second in command, a position he held until

1941 ((JW 307-8)). Another Thurle member, Karl Wiligut, became Himmler's

advisor on mythological subjects and was for six years head of pre-historical

research within the S.S. He designed the Totenkopfring worn by the S.S. and

other rituals depicting elite racial purity and territorial conquest ((NGC 177)).

Himmler was himself an enthusiast for the occult ((NGC 178)) and a believer in

reincarnation ((OW 319)). He was also a keen member of the Artamenen Bund,

which aimed to settle colonists on land so that they could escape from urban

civilisation ((JW 318-9)).

Thurle and DAP member, F. Krohn, built up a library of 2500 Volkischer

books for use by Nazi party members ((NGC 151)). Hitler avidly read these

between 1919-1921 ((JW 303)). In 1924 Thurle member Gottfried Feder

((OW 304)) was praised by Hitler in Mein Kampf ((AH 190)) and he

formulated the Nazi Party's programme ((JW 309)). The two members of

Thurle who exerted the greatest influence on Hitler and Nazism were Dietrich

Eckart and Alfred Rosenberg. Their contributions to Nazism are detailed in

other sections of this publication. When Thurle dissolved itself in 1925 there

was a flow of more members into the new Nazi movement ((NGC 220-1)).

CHAPTER 2ADOLF HITLER

Adolf Hitler was born in 1889 and received Catholic instruction at his Austrian

village school. In 1900 his family moved to Linz, close to the Czech border.

Czech immigrants were moving into Linz, so Volkischer feeling ran high.

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Hitler was scathingly critical of the priest who visited the secondary school to

give religious teaching. Several of the teachers were Pan-Germans, particularly

the history professor who belonged to several nationalist organisations

((NGC 193)) and was later a member of the Nazi SS ((WLS 14)).

Hitler later wrote: To learn history means to seek and find the forces whichare the cause leading to those effects which we subsequently perceive as

historical events. . . . to retain the essential, to forget the non-essential. Perhaps

it affected my whole later life that good fortune sent me a history teacher who

was one of the few to observe this principle in teaching and examining. Dr.

Leopold Potsch, my professor at the Realschule in Linz, embodied this

requirement to an ideal degree. . . . his dazzling eloquence not only held us

spell-bound but actually carried us away. Even today, I think back with gentle

emotion on this grey-haired man who, by the fire of his narratives, sometimes

made us forget the present; who, as if by enchantment, carried us into past

times and, out of the millennial veils of mist, moulded dry historical memories

into living reality. On such occasions we sat there, often aflame with

enthusiasm, and sometimes even moved to tears. ((AH 13)). Hitler supported

the nationalist ideas of Schoenerer's anti-Catholic Pan-Germanism and, despite

warnings, he sung the German rather than the Austrian national anthem

((AH 10-12)). So at school Hitler was already identifying himself with pagan

anti-Catholic forces.

On moving to Vienna, he became an avid reader of Lanz von Liebenfeld's

Ostara ((NGC 99)). This occult manichaean comic-book type publication,

peopled by blonds and darks, heroes and sub-men, Aryans and Tschandalen

((NGC 194-8)), was read widely. An edition in 1907 sold 100,000 copies

((NGC 113)). By Aryans, Lanz was referring to the original Vedic Aryans of

India, who had considered themselves to be a chosen people ((R 70)). In the

Buddhism of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), where Theosophy had established itself,

Aryan designated one who was noble, distinguished, of high birth, good, pure

and of noble education ((RCZ 292)). Tschandale was Lanz's translation of the

Sanskrit term candala. It denoted the lowest caste of untouchables according

to the Hindu codes of Manu ((NGC 100)). Lanz identified the Tschandale as

the mongrelized racially inferior and lower classes of modern times((NGC 242)), that favoured democracy, free competition and materialism

((JW 281)). Hinduism discouraged inter-racial marriages and Manu did not

justify marriages between higher and lower castes. Any offspring were

added to the numbers of the untouchables.

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It is very unlikely that Hitler read the scholarly works of Chamberlain, Galton,

Nietzsche and Gobineau. He imbibed their ideas from publications such as

Ostara, the Volkischer press, general conversations and Wagnerian dramas.

Although he showed some interest in the List Society, there is no evidence of

him taking part in occult rituals ((NGC 201)). He was interested in folklore and

inspiring legends, but not in academic debates regarding their survival incustoms and place names ((NGC 200)). Hitler was a practical man, thinking of

politics and the future.

Historians agree that Thurle member Dietrich Eckart had a determining

influence on Hitler's thinking at this time ((NGC 156, 220 and JW 304)). Hitler

acknowledged this influence in the closing words of his: Mein Kampf.

((AH 627 and NGC 46)). Eckart was a mystic rather than a politician. He was a

drug addict, a woman hater, an alcoholic, an anti-Semite, an anti-Catholic, a

Volkischer playwright and an admirer of Schopenhauer because of his adoption

of the Hindu doctrine of Maya: that the world is illusion ((JW 183-5)).

As early as 1919, Eckart had declaimed that volkisch opinion needed a leader

from the working class who would put fear into the rabble. He would not have

to have brains, but would know how to talk and also be a bachelor to attract the

women ((WLS 39)). Eckart saw Hitler, who was 21 years younger than himself,

as this man ((WLS 38)). He helped Hitler to improve his speech, lent him

books and introduced him to a wide circle of wealthy friends and agitators,

such as Rudolf Hess and Alfred Rosenberg ((WLS 39)). He was one of those

responsible for editing Mein Kampf and correcting Hitler's poor grammar.

Hitler, a wily politician, aiming to achieve power by the democratic process,

avoided anti-Christian utterances in his public speeches. He stressed such issues

as unemployment, economic revival and German humiliation. General

Ludendorff, who had been virtual dictator of Germany during the war, broke

from Hitler over this very tactic.

Ludendorff launched persistent and bitter attacks against the Catholic Church,

while Hitler tried to avoid the subject of religion. Challenged by Ludendorff,

Hitler privately admitted; I entirely agree with His Excellency . . . but I need,

for the building up of a great political movement, the Catholics of Bavaria just

as the Protestants of Prussia, the rest can come later. ((GP 148)). Hitler

claimed he wished to see a spiritual revival and would respect the freedom of

the churches. He maintained that he was merely opposed to Catholic political

parties.

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Yet the mass rallies with their symbolism of German blood, strength and joy,

supplied the occult desire for ritual. And the semi-religious belief in a race of

Aryan god-men, the needful extermination of inferiors, and the glorious future

for an eugenically bred and purified Aryan people, obsessed Hitler as it didother Nazi leaders ((NGC 203)). It was such a vision that motivated the inner

core of Nazi activists while being toned down for the general public.

Hitler venerated Nietzsche ((WLS 100)), who had rejected Christian linearism

(i.e. The belief that the world is moving towards fulfilment) and saw the eternal

cosmos as affirming itself in periodic recurrence ((NCE Vol. 7 page 25)). He

was also greatly influenced by Hegel ((WLS 110)), viewed Chamberlain as a

prophet ((WLS 103)), and repeatedly said Whoever wants to understand

National Socialist Germany must know Wagner. ((WLS 101)). James Webb

wrote . . . one of the most telling arguments for classing the early Nazimovement as Illuminated (i.e. by occult understanding), is the constellation

of ideas that presided over its birth.' ((JW 283)).

CHAPTER 3

HITLER'S MEIN KAMPF

Hitler wrote Mein Kampf while he was in prison and it was published in1924. He did not owe his ideas to any one predecessor. . . . the section of

Mein Kampf, which sets out Hitler's Ideas on racial issues, are couched in

historical rather than biological-mystical terms . . . Hitler was a self-taught man

and his system was his own, concocted piecemeal from the leavings of others,

filtered at third or fourth-hand through the cheap pamphlet and leaflet literature

of Viennese politics. . .. ((AHDCW xxxix)). When we read his words we hear

echoes of Blavatsky, Gobineau, Chamberlain (praised on page 245), List, Lanz

and many others.

His basic concepts were the belief in Aryan blood and the need to use eugenicsto further the betterment of mankind. All human culture, all the results of art,

science, and technology that we see before us today, are almost exclusively the

creative product of the Aryan ... he alone was the founder of all higher

humanity, therefore representing the prototype of all that we understand by the

word man. ((AH 263)).

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Aryan races . . . assisted by the multitude of lower-type beings standing at their

disposal as helpers, develop the intellectual and organisational capacities

dormant within them . . . they create cultures . . . In the end, however, the

conquerors transgress against the principle of blood purity . . . they begin to

mix with subjugated inhabitants and thus end their own existence . . . ((AH

265)). If they perish, the beauty of this earth will sink into the grave withthem. ((AH 262)).

He compared what he considered to be the high culture of the mainly Germanic

population of North America, with that of South America, where the Spanish

had mixed with the aborigines on a large scale ((AH 260)). True genius is

always inborn and never cultivated, let alone learned. ((AH 266)). He believed

the Germanic races, in which Hitler included the English and Scandinavians,

possessed the greatest proportion of Aryan blood. . . . today in our German

national body we still possess great unmixed stocks of Nordic-Germanic people

whom we may consider the most precious treasure for our future. He saw the

highest task of the state to be the promotion of the most noble elements of our

nationality, indeed of all mankind, which still remain intact. ((AH 361)).

The folkish (Volkisch) state . . . must set race in the centre of all life. . . . it

must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. It must

see to it that only the healthy beget children . . .there is only one disgrace:

despite one's own sickness and deficiencies, to bring children into the world ....

The state must declare unfit for propagation all who are in any way visibly

sick or who have inherited a disease ... ((AH 367)).

A prevention of the faculty and opportunity to procreate on the part of the

physically degenerate and mentally sick, over a period of only six hundred

years . . .would lead to a recovery which today seems scarcely conceivable.

((AH 368)). He also called for financial help for the healthy ((AH 367)). This

policy would not only provide the Germans with a great future but all humanity

((AH 368)).

He called for a . . . nobler age in which men no longer are concerned with

breeding dogs, horses, and cats, but in elevating man himself . . ((AH 368-9)).

Blood, sin and desecration of the race are the original sin in this world and the

end of a humanity which surrenders to it. ((AH 226)). He bemoaned that the

best elements, by volunteering for the most hazardous work in the war, had

been killed, while the worst elements exhibiting baseness, treachery,

cowardice, had turned their back and preserved themselves ((AH 472-4)).

The war robbed our people of millions of its noblest blood-bearers ...

((AH 592)).

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It is sometimes said that Hitler drew inspiration from the Austrian Christian

Social Party, which he mentioned in his book ((AH 109)). But a distinction

must be made here. He admired the strategy of gaining a wide following, by

advocating social reforms, while maintaining good relations with the Church

((AH 109)). He also praised its leader as ranking among the greatest of minds

of the German people ((AH 91 and 111)). But Hitler rejected all the basic principles of the Christian Social Party, particularly as it was committed to

following the social teachings of the Church and co-operating with non-

Germans ((AH 109-110)). Hitler further condemned it for making the mistake

of not basing its opposition to excessive Jewish influence on racialism

((AH 110)).

CHAPTER 4

SYMBOLISM

It has been suggested that Hitler's childhood experiences of Catholic liturgy,

such as seeing a swastika sign over the door of an old monastery, inspired the

pageantry of his rallies and his use of the swastika symbol. But there are far

more likely sources to have inspired Nazi symbolism. The pageantry at rallies

was more akin to triumphant, militant, Wagnerian dramas than the quiet

chanting within a monastery. It should also be remembered that it was

Wagnerian devotees, not Catholic monks, who were involved in arranging

these displays. It was the viciously anti-Catholic Julius Stretcher, who wasresponsible for organizing the Nuremberg rallies ((RLB 31)).

The word Swastika is derived from the sanskrit word, Svastika. Throughout

history many religions, including Christianity and Judaism, have used this

symbol, but its most frequent adoption in modern times has been by occultists.

Blavatsky used the swastika extensively, incorporating it into the seal of The

Theosophy Society ((NGC 20, JW 262 and CCM 39)). In 1891 Ernst Krause

called attention to the swastika as a particularly Aryan symbol ((JW 262)). The

first German publication at this time to sport the Theosophical Swastika on its

cover was Lotusbluthen (Lotus Blossoms). This was also in 1891 ((NGC 25)).The Theosophical publication for English children at that time was entitled

Lotus Journal ((CCM 39)). In 1875 List had used the swastika as the

centrepiece of a personal pagan rite ((NGC 35)), and later claimed it was a holy

Aryan and German symbol of the old religion ((NGC 52 and 71)). Alfred

Schuler, a member of the occult Munich Cosmics, taught during 1897 that the

sacredness of the blood was symbolised by the swastika ((JW 280-2)).

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List established the Templar Order with pagan liturgies and codes, where

members had to be racially pure so as to qualify for pursuing a new crusade

((NGC 108)). Several priories were established in castles from which Ostara

was published ((NGC 118)), and the swastika flag flown ((NGC 109)). List

Society members used the swastika on gravestones in place of the Christian

cross ((NGC 65)). Both List and Lanz . . . used the swastika as a leadingsymbol in their illuminated anti-Semitism.((JW 262)).

When Pan-German leaders formed, The German Volkischer League for

Defence and Defiance, in February 1919, it used the swastika as its emblem.

This League gained 200,000 members before being dissolved by the

government in 1922 ((DLN 46)). Ungern-Sternberg, a prominent occultist, born

in Estonia ((JW 198)), was an army commander during the Russian civil war

and during 1920 established himself in Mongolia. He called for the extirpation

of all Jews ((JW 201)), and restored the Living Buddha, who recognised

Ungern-Sternberg as the reincarnated God of War. The postage stamps issued

by this occult mystic for his new state bore the swastika ((JW 263)).

When the local organizer of the Thurle sponsored German Socialist Party in

Franconia, Julius Streicher, formed his Storm Troops (the SA), they wore a

swastika armband ((GP 25)). The parent body of Thurle, the Germanenorden,

displayed a swastika on the cover of its newsletter and on other of its items

((NGC 129)). The emblem of Thurle itself was a swastika with dagger

((NGC Plate 24)). Sebottendorff exhorted its members to fight Until the

swastika rises victorious out of the icy darkness. ((NGC 145)).

A dentist, Friedrich Krone, had been a member of the Germanenorden from

1913 and became a member of the Thurle. In May 1919, he proposed the

swastika as a suitable symbol for the Nazi party ((NGC 151)). Most

suggestions had incorporated a swastika ((AH 451)). Although the swastikas of

List and the Thurle were right-handed, those of the German Theosophical

Society and the Germanenorden were left-handed. Krone preferred a left-

handed form because of its Buddhist interpretation of good fortune, but Hitler

persuaded the party committee to adopt the right-handed version with straight

arms ((NGC 151)). Krone and Hitler designed the colour scheme of a black

swastika in a white circle on a red background. It was first displayed at a party

meeting on the 20th of May 1920 ((NGC 15 and AH 451-2)). Hitler explained:

As National Socialists, we see . . . in the swastika the mission of the struggle

for the victory of the Aryan man . . . ((AH 452)).

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The Influence of occult ideas may be seen in other ways. List claimed that the

word Gau specified the Pre-Christian true ethnic provinces of Germany

((NGC 69)). When in power, Hitler abolished traditional state boundaries and

named the new administrative unit a Gau, ruled by a Gauleiter. This was to

show that a new start had been made of a thousand year pagan civilisation. List

had also related how the medieval emperor Barbarossa would awake andunleash a wave of Teutonic fury across the world, prior to the establishment of

German world rule ((NGC 87)). When Hitler unleashed his massive blitzkrieg

against the Soviet Union in 1941, it was code-named Barbarossa.

List's plans for a new Pan-German empire were very detailed. They . . . bear

an uncanny resemblance to the Nuremberg racial laws of the 1930s and the

Nazi vision of the future. ((NGC 63-4)). List based his structure of society on

the cabbalistic Tree of Life, and the similarities with Himmler's plans for an

SS order-state are striking. ((NGC 64)). The Totenkopfring design of the SS

was full of occult symbolism ((NGC Plate 32)).

It is very clear that Nazi symbolism was firmly based on occult tradition and

not of Christian inspiration.

CHAPTER 5BAVARIAN CATHOLICS

The Nazi party was founded in Munich, the capital of Bavaria, which was the

most Catholic area of Germany. It has been insinuated that its Catholic culture

was the seed-bed for this evil creed. From a distance this insinuation may seem

credible, but closer examination disproves it.

The defeat of the Soviet Bavarian revolution in May 1919 revived the spirits of

the extreme conservatives and nationalists. Munich provided them with a

rallying point. . . . now the Bavarian capital became a magnet for all thoseforces in Germany which were determined to overthrow the Republic, and set

up an authoritarian regime and repudiate the Dictat of Versailles . . . Here

General Ludendorff settled along with a host of other disgruntled, discharged

Army officers. ((WS 34)). It also became a centre for Russian refugees from

Communism, who included many occultists convinced of a Jewish conspiracy

((JW 175)).

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Also, following the assassination of Walter Rathenau in 1922, when extremist

parties were outlawed in Prussia, both right-wing and left-wing extremists fled

to Munich. These are the reasons Hitler found so many able and dedicated

followers in Munich to assist him to establish his party.

Few of those involved with the founding of the Nazi party, or preparing itsideological roots, were Bavarians. Darwin, Galton, Spencer, Chamberlain and

Besant were English. Gobineau was French, while Blavatsky came from

Russia. List, Lanz and Hitler were Austrians. Rosenberg came from Estonia.

Sebottendorff and Ludendorff were born In Prussia. Goebbels was a

Rheinlander and Eckart a Wurtenburger. Hess, Hitlers deputy, was born and

educated in Egypt.

Four early Nazi leaders were Bavarians: Goering, Rohm, Streicher and Strasser.

Goering, to become Hitler's third in command, was from a Protestant family,

Rohm was an anti-Catholic homosexual ((WS 26 and 39)). Streicher taught inProtestant Nuremburg so as to avoid the opposition of the Catholic clergy.

((See: Hitler's Rise to Power on this web site)). Only Gregor Strasser, despite

repeated condemnations of Nazism by the bishops, claimed he could be both a

Nazi party member and remain a Catholic. Even so, he was very anti-Rome,

opposed the Catholic parties, fought against the signing of Concordats between

the Church and local states and helped the neo-pagan elements within the

Protestant Church ((PDS 59)). In 1932 he led 60 moderate Nazi Reichstag

members in a revolt against Hitler ((PDS 111)). Having failed, he resigned

from office ((PDS 122)) and the next year called the Nazi leaders: criminals

((PDS 121)). Hitler had him murdered in 1934 ((WLS 222)).

As most Bavarians were baptised Catholic, it is not surprising that the Nazi

party was able to attract the electoral support of some who had rejected, or

drifted from, their religious upbringing. But it was in the Protestant districts of

Bavaria that the early Nazi party recruited the bulk of its members and electoral

support ((See Hitlers Rise to Power on this web site)).

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CHAPTER 6

SUPPORTERS OF EUGENICS

A. Introduction

Hitler's economic successes gained him considerable admiration in many

countries, but some people went further and were in sympathy with the basic

principles of Nazism. It is very noticeable that these people were also in the

forefront of attacks on Catholic teachings. It is relevant to recall a few

examples.

B. America

It is widely known that Margaret Sanger (1879-1966) fought bitterly against

Catholics in her position as leader, both in America and internationally, of theBirth-Control Movement. It is less well known that her motivation was not one

of love and compassion for the poor, but to promote a form of eugenics similar

to that of Nazism. In early life she did engage in social work but was converted

to eugenics by Havelock Ellis during 1914 ((ED 17)), and devoted the rest of

her life to its promotion. During 1919 she coined the slogan: more children

from the fit, less from the unfit that is the chief aim of Birth-Control', and in

1921, Birth-Control: to create a race of thoroughbreds. ((ED 12)).

In 1923 Sanger called for the poor to be sterilised, the issuing of licences to

those permitted to breed, and for the encouragement of successful types tohave children ((ED 10)). The following year Hitler called for the sick and those

with hereditary disease to be prevented from having children, the limiting of

settlement certificates (for those moving to new territories) to the racially

pure, and financial assistance to healthy women so as to encourage them to

have children ((AH 367-8)). Hitler's attitude to the mentally unhealthy and

unworthy was kinder than that of Sanger. He wrote that education must teach

that it is no disgrace, but only a misfortune deserving of pity to be sick and

weakly, . . . ((AH 368)). But Sanger taught that Eugenicists must steel

themselves against feelings of pity and sentimentality ((ED 42, 62 and 64)).

She labelled the poor as: human weeds ((ED 15)).

In 1932, the year previous to Germany opening its first Concentration Labour

Camp for reforming undesirable individuals, Sanger published her Peace

Plan for America. This called for:

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1. A stop to the immigration of all Catholics, Jews and other

feebleminded people.

2. The segregation, for the rest of their lives on farms under

work instructors, of all feebleminded Americans who refused to

be sterilised.

3. The keeping of other anti-social groups on these farms

until they had been reformed ((ED 21-2)).

As Sanger classified 70% of Americans as feebleminded ((ED 20)), her plan

was of massive proportions. It was to be administered by the Anglo-Saxon

elite, so as to prevent the numerical superiority of Slavs, Latins and Hebrews

((ED 17 and 19)). She opposed Democracy ((ED 26 and 56)) and Trade Unions

((ED 84)), because they gave power to low class morons. The most

insidiously injurious philanthropy of all was, in Sanger's view:

To supply free medical and nursing facilities to slum mothers;

that such women are visited by nurses and receive instruction in

the hygiene of pregnancy; that these women would be guided in

making arrangements for their confinements; and that slum

mothers would be able to see a doctor to make their childbearing

safe. ((ED 44)).

With the aid of money provided by the Rockefeller Foundation in 1925

((ED 111)), she organised the first world population conference ((ED 109)),entertaining the leading American anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic and anti-Black

racists ((ED 109 and 111)). Regarding the British factory worker, she believed

that Compared with the African negro the British sub-man is in several

respects markedly inferior ((ED 47)).

In 1921 an American immigration act was passed which discriminated very

heavily in favour of northern Europeans and completely excluded Asians.

Calvin Coolidge, the American President who quickly signed this Act, had

earlier publicly declared, America must be kept American. Biological laws

show . . . that Nordics deteriorate when mixed with other races. ((DJK 97)).The Act was widely acclaimed by eugenicists in America ((DJK 97)), and by

Hitler in 'Mein Kampf' ((AH 400)).

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In April 1933, the month following Hitler obtaining power, Sanger published a

special issue of her Birth Control Review devoted to eugenic sterilisation.

Prof. Ernst Rudin, who was to become the Nazi specialist in Human Genetics,

contributed an article urging quick action to prevent the multiplication of bad

stocks ((ED 22)). In the same issue, Paul Popenoe, who was deeply involved In

Sanger's Birth Control League, praised the Nazis and called for the sterilisationof one million Americans ((ED 22)). Another member, Leon Whitney,

defended and welcomed the forthcoming German law and called for the

restriction of the propagation of those physically, mentally and socially

inadequate ((ED 23)).

Harry Laughlin, a pantheist member of the League who believed god was

some sort of universal ether, also contributed to the special issue. He

composed the Model Eugenic Sterilisation Law, which was used by the Nazis

as the basis for framing their own law. In recognition of his work, Heidelberg

University, the Nazi centre for discussing racial problems, presented him with

an honorary doctorate of medicine in 1936 ((DJK 118 and ED 24)). When

Hitler's law was passed, the American Eugenics Society said it showed great

courage and statesmanship ((DJK 118)).

Lothrop Stoddard, on Sanger's Board of Directors for years, wrote The Rising

Tide Of Color Against White Supremacy, which was reviewed favourably in

Sanger's Birth-Control Review ((ED 109)). Later he was permitted to sit-in on

the Nazi Eugenic Supreme Court. He reported The Sterilisation Law is

weeding out the worst strains in the German stock . . . ((ED 13)). He was

honoured by being granted a personal interview with Hitler ((ED 109)).

Henry Fairchild, head of Sanger's Population Association Of America,

asserted in The Melting Pot Mistake that Jews were a threat to the Nordic

stock ((ED 109)). In 1937 he joined Eugen Fischer to write a foreword for a

German racist book ((ED 111)). Fischer was Hitler's advisor on race hygiene

and Sanger invited him to America ((ED 111)). The front page of Sanger's

main publication sported the slogan A Sure Light In Our Racial Darkness

((ED 40)). Sanger believed in astrology and numerology, and had a strong

affinity to Indian mysticism. She was a member of the Rosicrucians ((ED 19)),

and the symbols of this occult sect were printed on the front of her The New

Generation ((ED 38)).

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C. Britain

Following its foundation in New York, the Theosophical Society soon spread to

Britain. The Idea of studying eastern religions appealed to those who had

rejected Christianity but found atheistic materialism unfulfilling.

Annie Besant, born in 1847 and brought up by an anti-religious father, left her

husband and became an atheist in 1873. Four years later she became known for

advocating contraception and opposing Catholicism. In May 1889, after a short

period with the Fabian Socialists, Besant joined the Theosophists. On

Blavatsky's death in 1891 she became President of the Theosophical Society

moving to India. Many Americans refused to recognise her position and formed

a separate organisation ((NCE Vol. 14 page 74)). In this same year she ended

her advocacy of contraception ((CCM 28)) but remained very anti-Catholic.

Marie Stopes established the first contraceptive clinic in England. She is often presented as a warm-hearted humanitarian at the forefront of progress,

fighting against an old fashioned Catholic morality. She was born in 1880, and

by 1899 was addicted to theosophical speculation ((RH 37)). She studied for a

doctorate at Munich University and while there developed a passion for

Wagnerian drama ((RH 42)). Returning home she married in 1911, but five

years later obtained a decree of nullity on the ground of non-consummation

((RH 93-5)). By then she had absorbed the eugenic racialist teachings of

Francis Galton ((RH 112-3)). In 1918 Marie Stopes expressed her views in her

play, Lace. In this composition, she deplored the racial effect of the best men

volunteering to fight in the war and being killed, while cowards stayed alive to

have children ((RH 111-2)). Hitler expressed the same anguish ((AH 472-4)).

The play advocated unmarried fine, clean strong men, siring children, before

they went to fight so as to preserve the best of the country's racial strains

((RH 111-2)). The Nazi state in 1939 urged the same `racial morality` on

unmarried soldiers, with financial incentives for the unmarried mother.

((CBC 467-469)).

In 1918 she also published Married Love which revolutionised the British

public's attitude to contraception. She was a virgin of 38 at the time, so based

her teachings on the theories of Edward Carpenter, Olive Schreiber and

Havelock Ellis ((RH 127)). Carpenter was a Marxist homosexual ((RF 294)),

and Schreiber a freethinker with a mystical pantheist belief in nature.

((RF 54 and 96)). Shreiber had rejected Christianity when ten years of age

((ACM 93)), had sex at 16 ((ACM 93)), enthused over Schopenhauer's

philosophy ((RF 294)), enjoyed masochism ((ACM 91)) and proclaimed an

unmarried woman's right to be a mother ((RF 27)).

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Ellis was impotent and married to a lesbian ((RF 294)). He was the pioneer of

the views upon which much modern non-Christian teaching regarding sex,

marriage and human relationships are based. Addicted to hallucinatory drugs

and a pantheist ((ED 18)), he was also anti-Catholic.

Ellis's book The Problems of Race Regeneration of 1911, called for the end ofPoor Law Relief unless paupers were sterilised ((ED 18)). He approved of the

American Nelda Community that aimed to replace the random procreation

in marriage, with breeding from those considered able to produce superior

children. This was similar to the Lebensborn breeding houses later established

by the Nazis ((ED 18)). In: The Task of Social Hygiene (1912), he urged that

Socialism would require the purification of the racial stock ((GW 132)).

The use of the title Doctor helped to win Marie Stopes the confidence of

poorly educated women, but of medicine she was ignorant. Her doctorate had

been obtained in botany, following a specialist study of the reproductive habitsof primitive seed bearing plants ((RH 45)). In 1920 her Radiant Motherhood

deplored society allowing the diseased, the racially negligent, the thriftless, the

careless, the feeble-minded, the very lowest and worst members of the

community to produce . . . stunted, warped and inferior infants ((RF 180)).

The better classes, she wrote, should be freed from the burden of supporting

prisons, hospitals and institutions, principally filled by inferior stock. They

would then be able to increase their own families ((RH 181)). The Nazis later

used the same argument. She wrote that a few Acts of Parliament could achieve

a new and irradiated race ((RH 181)), or in Hitler's words a highly bred racial

stock ((AH 368)). Bills should be passed to ensure the sterility of the

hopelessly rotten and racially diseased. She wanted to protect the racial

stream from being poisoned ((RH 180)). Hitler also wanted to protect the

creative races dying out from blood poisoning ((AH 262)). A comparison of

Radiant Motherhood with Mein Kampf is very instructive.

Marie Stopes condemned blind people for having children, strongly

disapproved of inter-racial marriages and praised the . . . pristine purity of a

girl of our northern race. ((RH 129)). In August 1921, she founded the

Society for Constructive Birth Control and Racial Progress ((RH 199)). In

1934 she publicly stated that all half-castes should be sterilised at birth

((RH 182)). This was the year following Hitler's introduction of compulsory

sterilisation into Germany. For some years she had been interested in

Theosophy ((RH 281)) and believed in reincarnation ((RH 322)). In 1925 she

made her position clear: I am out for a much greater thing than birth-control. I

am out to smash the tradition of organised Christianity. ((RH 260)).

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In 1921, she advocated the use of armed force to put down the miner`s strike.

((RH 190)), and during the second world war was depressed by her fear that the

Labour Party would destroy the old social hierarchy, and thereby defeat her

plans of perfecting the human race by encouraging the better stocks

((RH 298)). Becoming terrified of being swamped by hordes of Indians and

Chinese, she campaigned fiercely to spread birth-control in India ((RH 291)).During 1942 when the Jewish Holocaust was at its peak, she expressed her

hates in verse:

Catholics and Prussians, The Jews and the Russians,

All are a curse, or something worse. ((RH 288)).

In 1947, two years after Hitler's eugenic empire had been destroyed, Stopes did

everything possible to prevent her son Harry marrying Mary Wallis because she

wore glasses. Stopes cried out that it would be a crime against his country

which increasingly needs fine and perfect people. . . Mary has an inheritedphysical defect and morally should never bear children . . . both his father's line

and mine are free from all defect. It is awful to both my husband and me that he

should contaminate his splendid inheritance and make a mock of our life's work

for eugenic breeding and the race . . . it is cruel to burden children with

defective sight and the handicap of goggles . . . I will not in any way take part

in or condone the planning of these crimes. When Harry went ahead and

married Mary, he was cut out of her will ((RH 300-3)). Mary Wallis was not

unattractive and her glasses were perfectly ordinary ((RH 303)). Dr. Haire, a

homosexual preoccupied with the idea of selective breeding, opened the second

contraceptive clinic in England ((PG 377)).

Carl Pearson succeeded Francis Galton as the leading advocate of Genetics. He

refused to attend Divinity lectures while at University and went to Germany to

study philosophy at Heidelberg University. Under Hitler this University

became the centre for racist studies. At the time he arrived in Germany,

Chamberlain's racist book was the topic of interest. Pearson's ideas were greatly

influenced by Heidelberg's blend of idealism and economic historicism.

((DJK 22-23)), and he so loved Germany that he changed his name from Carl to

Karl ((DJK 22)). He accepted the German variety of rationalism, and on his

return to England wrote a Passion Play in which to attack Christianity

((DJK 22)). Pearson believed an imperial nation like Britain needed numbers

substantially recruited from the better stocks. ((DJK 32)). He . . . saw no

point in expanding schools as intelligence was bred not taught. ((DJK 33)),

which echoed Hitler's words in Mein Kampf, True genius is always inborn and

never cultivated, let alone learned. ((AH 266)).

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Pearson considered charities for children of the incapable were a national

curse not a blessing ((DJK 33)). He opposed the minimum wage, the eight-

hour day, free medical advice and a reduction of infant mortality, as these

measures replaced reproductive selection ((DJK 34)). If child allowances

were paid, they should favour the eugenically desirable ((DJK 34)). Although

he concentrated on study rather than political action, in 1922 he opposed Jewishimmigration on eugenic grounds ((CH 216-7)) because he didn't want Britain to

be: swamped by the influx of immigrants of an inferior race. ((CH 216)).

The Eugenic Society of England, formed in 1908 ((RH 176)), campaigned prior

to the First World War for the compulsory sterilisation of stocks with bad

hereditary and inferior capacity ((JW 87)). Throughout the 1920s its Review

published articles extolling the virtues of the Nordic Races ((ST 82)). In 1925

it opposed the immigration of aliens, particularly Negroes, who would produce

a half-caste progeny ((ST 140-1)). But during the 1930s the Society made

efforts to avoid identification with Nazi Nordic racialism and anti-Semitism

((DJK 172)), which were becoming unpopular. Marie Stopes bequeathed her

clinic to this Society ((RH 326)).

D. Marxism

In the January and February 1849 issues of his journal Neue Rheinische

Zeitung, Karl Marx published articles calling for the extermination of whole

races in Europe. These articles were included in a book of the teachings of

Marx, Engels and Lenin published in Germany during 1902 and again in 1913

((GWE 20)). It is most likely that Engels wrote them ((GW 129)). This socialist

programme considered the Slav nations to be counter-revolutionary. The

Germans, Poles and Magyars (Hungarians) were considered to be the bearers

of progress. The rest must go:

The chief mission of all other races and peoples,

large and small, is to perish in the revolutionary holocaust.

((GWE 20)).

It was explained that the Slavs had failed to pursue essential historic evolution,

so were therefore counter-revolutionary. All European countries containleft-overs of earlier inhabitants, now rightly brought into subjugation by more

advanced peoples. Amongst such racial trash (Voekerabfall) were listed

Scottish Highlanders, Bretons, Basques, South Slavs (Slovenes, Croats, Serbs)

and Czechs. ((GWE 20)).

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Until its complete extermination or loss of national status, this

racial trash always becomes the most fanatical bearer there is of

counter-revolution, and it remains that. That is because its entire

existence is nothing more than a protest against a great historical

revolution. The next world war will cause not only reactionary

classes and dynasties, but also entire reactionary peoples, todisappear from the earth. And that too is progress. ((GWE 20)).

As Marx and Engels aged, they took greater interest in Eugenics and Social

Darwinism suggesting that progress was interpretable in racial terms

((GW130)).

COMMENT AND CONCLUSION

In recalling the movements which contributed to the birth of Nazism, it is

necessary to observe that not all those involved in these movements were

sympathetic to Nazism itself. A person may have supported eugenics, yet not

have been a racist; enjoyed Wagnerian drama, yet not have accepted pagan

gods; followed occult Hindu and Buddhist beliefs, yet not have adopted the

Aryan race myth; supported voluntary contraception yet rejected compulsory

sterilisation; have hated Jews and Catholics, yet not wished for their deaths.

What the evidence does show however, is that the ideologies, philosophies and

movements from which Nazism took i

the anti-christian roots of nazism by dennis barton

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